Increase in criminal attacks on churches has hit a new level up 800% over the last six years

Church-vandalism

Important Takeaways:

  • While the Biden administration cracks down on the Christians Democrats and the press smear as extremists, church attacks are up 800 percent in the last six years, according to a new report from the Family Research Council (FRC).
  • In February, the conservative group published the report, “Hostility Against Churches Is on the Rise in the United States.” It identified 915 acts of hostility against churches between January 2018 and November 2023.
  • “Although the motivations for many of these acts of hostility remain unknown, the effect is unmistakable: religious intimidation,” said FRC Center for Religious Liberty Director Arielle Del Turco in a press release. “They send the message that churches are not wanted in the community or respected in general. Our culture is demonstrating a growing disdain for Christianity and core Christian beliefs, and acts of hostility towards churches could be a physical manifestation of that.”

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Pastor Jack Hibbs says 2024 “Christians are on a mission and we’re in an all-out war”

Jack-Hibbs-in-Church

Important Takeaways:

  • Pastor Jack Hibbs lists 5 things Christians will go to war over in 2024
  • In part one of the series, preached last month, Hibbs explained that his message was centered on “the war of 2024,” emphasizing that Christians “are on a mission and we are in a war.”
  • “I’m not talking about bombs, guns and missiles,” he clarified. “I’m talking about an all-out war on everything, from the spiritual realm, which is invisible, but certainly to the physical world, in which things manifest.”
  • “And this year of 2024 will be unlike any other year previously lived in your lifetime.”
  • Hibbs believes that, first of all, the war “will be against the truth,”… “When you tell somebody the actual truth, they don’t believe it,” he said. “It’s not that they’re being mean about it; it’s that ‘why should I believe that because I’ve just heard 10 other things.’”
  • The second thing that the war of 2024 will be centered on, according to Hibbs, will be a war “against the facts,” with the pastor defining facts as “the reporting of what is observed.”
    • “you are going to see deception fly like you’ve never seen it fly before. It’s going to be supersonic.”
  • The third thing that the war of 2024 will include is a war “against the faith,”… against the Christian faith specifically.
  • The fourth aspect of the war of 2024, according to Hibbs, is the war “against the Church,” noting that “the war has always been against the Church” and that “God loves His Church, we love each other, but the world is against us.”
  • The fifth and final aspect of the war of 2024 that Hibbs spoke about was that it would be “a war against marriage,”… the cheapening of marriage in modern society

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‘The Essential Church’ documentary surged to #1 on Apple Store

The-Essential-Church

Important Takeaways:

  • A documentary that traced the struggles of three Christian churches to remain open as governments tried to shut them down during the coronavirus hysteria has surged to number one on the Apple iTunes Store in its documentaries category.
  • The film follows the fight by three churches to remain open to serve their flocks even as the woke state tried to forcibly close them down during the worst of its pandemic hysteria starting in 2020.
  • The film features the tribulations of Grace Community Church’s John MacArthur in Los Angeles, Fairview Baptist Church pastor Tim Stephens in Calgary, Canada, and GraceLife Church pastor James Coates also in Canada.
  • The film speaks to the authority government has or should have to shut down churches, and speaks to the role that civil government has in the church, and when and how it should or should not be obeyed by Christians.

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Why is Revelation ignored by much of the Church to whom it was written?

Church-Steeple

Important Takeaways:

  • Jesus Unveiled Bible Prophecy, So Why Are Only 2% of US Churches Teaching it?
  • In a recent Lifeway poll they found only 2% of churches in the USA teach Bible prophecy. This is an amazing latter-days stat for several reasons:
    • Roughly 30% of the Bible is prophetic. They’re ignoring almost 1/3 of the scriptures.
    • 100% accuracy in past prophecies fulfilled literally separates the Bible from every other book on the planet. It not only claims to be written by God, it proves it by predicting the future.
    • The entire Book of Revelation was prophetic when written. Today everything from Revelation 6 forward is still in the future and likely to be fulfilled within the next 7-14 years.
    • The Book of Revelation is the only book that promises Believers a special blessing for even trying to read and understand it.
  • Revelation 1:3 KJV – “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.”
  • In the Book of Daniel, it says to “seal up” the words until the end of the Times of the Gentiles. In the Book of Revelation, which dovetails with Daniel, John is told to “seal NOT the words for the time is at hand”… meaning the Church Age.
  • And God promises through Amos that He WOULD reveal to us what is going on.
  • Amos 3:7 KJV – “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”
  • And from Jeremiah:
  • Jeremiah 30:24 KJV – “The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until he hath done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it.”
  • Yet only 2% of churches even attempt to try to understand the thrust of the Bible’s teaching in hundreds of Bible prophecy verses.
  • I know one thing, Satan sure doesn’t want Believers to study prophecy because it gives people hope.

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Pastor uses ChatGPT to generate sermon and worship

Violet-Crown-Church

Important Takeaways:

  • Church in AI takeover as sermon led by ChatGPT in artificial intelligence breakthrough
  • The word of God has now been officially taken over by AI as proved by this robot-generated sermon which included humans worshipping.
  • You can now forget the stereotype that religion is backwards as this Methodist Church in Texas now uses artificial intelligence to conduct a service with ChatGPT.
  • On September 17, 2023, the Violet Crown City Church, a Methodist church in North Austin, US, transformed the tradition of Sunday service into the new age with Artificial Intelligence.
  • Pastor Jay Cooper, of Violet Crown City Church, decided to debut an AI-generated worship service for his congregation.
  • Using AI, Jay recorded the service while letting the artificial intelligence generator conduct the service, with AI being able to create prayers, a sermon, and an original song based on the sermon itself.
  • “The idea to create an AI-generated worship service came from my belief that the church should not only be aware of the most pressing issues of our world, but also to actively engage in them,” Jay said.

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A number of America’s churches are facing tough decisions as attendance drops

Revelation 2:5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

Important Takeaways:

  • How Do You Resurrect an Empty Church?
  • America’s aging houses of worship face a stark choice: sell, redevelop, or pray for a miracle.
  • On June 25, Summerfield Church in Milwaukee held its last Sunday service. The rough-cut sandstone church, with its bright red doors and stained-glass windows, was built in 1904 to house the state’s oldest Methodist congregation, and occupies a prominent corner lot a few blocks north of downtown. By this spring, the congregation had dwindled to just 11 members, none younger than 65, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. And the repair bill to get the water-damaged structure shipshape was $1.3 million.
  • It is a story replaying over and over in cities across the United States, where older churches have been hammered by neighborhood change and maintenance costs, coinciding with a national trend of plummeting religious attendance across faiths. Over the past decade, the share of Americans who attend weekly services at a church, synagogue, mosque, or temple has fallen to 30 percent, after hovering for half a century at 40 percent. Overall membership has fallen even more precipitously, and less than half of Americans now say they “belong” to a religious organization. A pair of studies has suggested that thousands of U.S. churches close each year (though a smaller, significant number are founded).
  • And all of this was happening before COVID, which normalized virtual participation and decoupled people from their neighborhood institutions.
  • “Churches have been on the edge of a cliff, and COVID was a blast of air blowing them off,” said Rick Reinhard
  • New Jersey, whose 291-year-old First Presbyterian was among the oldest institutions to close. “There is a great mismatch between small, aging congregations and large, aging properties,” he told me. “What empty department stores were 30 years ago, empty churches are today, but much more difficult to resolve.”
  • Last month, the issue made headlines in New York City, where the dozen-person congregation of West-Park Presbyterian Church is trying to sell its 19th-century building to a developer who will demolish it and build apartments.
  • Tim Keller, the influential evangelical pastor who died this spring, recalled the jarring sight of converted churches in Manhattan, including a beautiful brownstone church in Chelsea that had served Episcopal worshippers since 1844. “Now it was the Limelight, an epicenter of the downtown club scene,” Keller wrote. “Thousands of people a night showed up for drugs and sex and the possibility of close encounters with the famous of the cultural avant garde. It was a vivid symbol of a culture that had rejected Christianity.”

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2023 has seen a 300% increase in hostility towards Christians and Churches

Church Steeple

Mathew 24:12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

Important Takeaways:

  • ‘Cause For Concern’: FRC Report Highlights 300% Increase In Hostility Towards Churches in The First Quarter Of 2023
  • The report documented a nearly 300% increase in acts of hostility in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same time frame in 2022. If the trend continues, the report underscored that “2023 will have the highest number of incidents of the six years FRC has tracked.”
  • The acts of hostility contained in the report include “vandalism, arson, gun-related incidents, bomb threats, and more.”
  • In its previous report from December 2022, FRC expounded on the serious nature of rising aggression towards Christianity in the US.
  • “Americans appear increasingly comfortable lashing out against church buildings, pointing to a larger societal problem of marginalizing core Christian beliefs, including those that touch on hot-button political issues related to human dignity and sexuality,” FRC cautioned.
  • This targeting of Christians was brought to the forefront late last month when 28-year-old Audrey Hale entered Covenant School in Nashville, opening fire on children and teachers, resulting in the deaths of six people. Unfortunately, instead of the response which typically arises from such an event, many on the left proceeded to mock the Christian school’s prayer and refer to the shooter’s death as a “tragedy” due to Hale identifying as “transgender.” As one activist proclaimed, “Hate has consequences.”
  • FRC’s report indicated that the Nashville shooting is not an isolated incident but rather a growing trend that deserves immediate attention.
  • Author and Pastor, Mark Hitchcock, recently delved into this topic
    • “What we’re seeing today is an unleashing of satanic warfare against Christians because we stand in the way of Satan’s agenda, unlike any others,” Hitchcock argued. “The battle lines are being drawn, and we’re seeing a real clash of kingdoms, the clash of Satan’s kingdom versus God’s kingdom, a clash between darkness and light, a clash between the culture of death and life, a culture of disorder versus peace, a culture of dysphoria versus divine order.”
    • “We see a ramping up of this hatred against the people of God, against believers. In America, really, up to now, what we’ve seen in the last few years, it’s mainly been what I call a kind of low-grade or soft persecution. It’s more of a mocking, maligning, and marginalizing of Christians,” he explained. “But we’re seeing that now being ramped up. The rhetoric is rising, and more and more Christians are in the crosshairs— [we are] moving to a more physical persecution against believers.”

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Lutheran Church in Germany uses AI Chatbot to preach Sunday sermon

Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Important Takeaways:

  • A.I. Chatbot Preaches at Church in Germany: ‘Looks Like the Unveiling of the Antichrist/Beast System’
  • A unique sermon was delivered via artificial intelligence Friday in a Lutheran church in Germany.
  • A ChatGPT chatbot asked the people in the fully packed St. Paul’s Church in the town of Fuerth to rise from the pews and praise the Lord.
  • The bot was personified by an avatar of a bearded black man on a huge screen above the altar. It preached to more than 300 people who showed up for the experimental Lutheran church service, generated almost entirely by artificial intelligence.
  • Those in the church listened attentively as the A.I. preached about leaving the past behind, focusing on the challenges of the present, overcoming fear of death, and never losing trust in Jesus Christ.

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Only 16% of Americans surveyed said religion is the most important thing in their lives

John 4:23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

Important Takeaways:

  • The importance of religion in the lives of Americans is shrinking
  • Just 16% of Americans surveyed said religion is the most important thing in their lives, according to the PRRI study, down from 20% a decade ago.
  • However, for people who do still attend religious services, they say they’re optimistic about the future of their house of worship.
  • Even though the U.S. as a whole is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse, the vast majority of Christian churchgoers report that their congregations are “mostly monoracial.”
  • The research also found that religious Americans are on the move.

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Ignorance of the Bible is problem in the church and the home

Revelation 3:14 ““To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:  These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.   19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

Important Takeaways:

  • Ignorance Of The Bible Isn’t Just A Problem In Our Culture—It’s A Problem In The Church
  • Multiple surveys reveal the problem in stark terms. Most Christians in the United States believe the Bible teaches, “God helps those who help themselves” (and some even believe this quote is a Bible verse). A series of Barna surveys shows that only 19% of “born again Christians” hold to the simplest elements of a basic biblical worldview.
  • A Barna poll once indicated that at least 12 percent of adults believe that Joan of Arc might be Noah’s wife.
  • Another survey of graduating high school seniors revealed that over 50 percent thought that Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife
  • A considerable number of respondents to one poll indicated that Billy Graham preached the Sermon on the Mount.
  • The larger scandal is biblical ignorance among Christians. Choose whichever statistic or survey you like, the general pattern is the same among professing Christians. America’s Christians know less and less about the Bible. It shows.
  • Bible teaching now often accounts for only a diminishing fraction of the local congregation’s time and attention.
  • Youth ministries are asked to fix problems, provide entertainment, and keep kids busy. But how many local church youth programs actually substantially increase their Bible knowledge during the critical junior high and high school years?
  • Recovery starts at home. Parents are to be the first and most important educators of their own children, diligently teaching them the Word of God (see Deuteronomy 6:4–9). Parents cannot pass their responsibility off to the congregation, no matter how faithful and biblical it may be.

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